Who has the most manly image, Vin Diesel or Vladimir Putin? Both men look like someone you don't want to mess around with.
But when it comes to real power, I'd take Putin. Sorry Vin, but your bad ass stuff is made up in Hollywood. Vladimir's stuff is world class strongman scary. He has a herd of Russian bears as backup. And no one wants to rumble with that.Not even NATO.

Vin Diesel Challenges Vladimir Putin To The Coldest Of Cold Wars

By Alisha Grauso

If there’s one thing Vin Diesel does well, it’s completely owning the social media game. But if there’s another thing Vin does well, it’s being a total badass on screen.

But he basically managed to combine his two superpowers and threw in a huge pair of brass balls for funsies, because Vin completed the Ice Bucket Challenge…and publicly called out Russian President/Iron-Fisted Overlord Vladimir Putin to do the same.

One does not simply challenge Vladimir Putin to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, bro. Next thing you know, he’ll be pulling a Ukraine on us and rolling tanks up in this bitch.

That, or he’ll accept Vin’s challenge and do it while HALO jumping out of an Ilyushin and landing bare-chested on the back of a grizzly bear before riding it straight into an icy Siberian lake. Because Putin likes photo ops.

You have to admire the way he gets right to the point. No lead-in, no explanation, just all business. I also like that he didn’t mess around when it came to choosing his friends or people he found funny – nope, he went straight for three of the most influential people in the world. Putin, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Goodwill Ambassador/actress/director Angelina Jolie. There’s really no way to aim higher.

Considering the ALS Association is an American nonprofit organization, I highly doubt the cantankerous Russian President will be joining the cause any time soon. On the other hand, he might do it just to prove to Vin, he’sthe more manly of the two manly men.

Solar roadways are an interesting concept no matter what you think about climate change. Just think of the surface area in the US covered by paving material. It’s got to be a mind blowing number. With solar roadways this area could be used to generate electricity.

Solar Roadways Are Futuristic But Possible Now

If you haven’t heard about “Solar Roadways” and all the possibilities that the emerging technology comes with, this viral video from the guys behind the initiative is a good place to start. The video had more than 1.3 million views as of Friday afternoon:

Solar Roadways is a modular paving system of solar panels that can withstand the heaviest of trucks (250,000 pounds). These Solar Road Panels can be installed on roads, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, bike paths, playgrounds… literally any surface under the sun. They pay for themselves primarily through the generation of electricity, which can power homes and businesses connected via driveways and parking lots. A nationwide system could produce more clean renewable energy than a country uses as a whole (http://solarroadways.com/numbers.shtml).

Solar Roadways Offer Many Benefits

They have many other features as well, including: heating elements to stay snow/ice free, LEDs to make road lines and signage, and attached Cable Corridor to store and treat stormwater and provide a “home” for power and data cables. EVs will be able to charge with energy from the sun (instead of fossil fuels) from parking lots and driveways and after a roadway system is in place, mutual induction technology will allow for charging while driving.

Solar Roadways Have Broad Appeal

While the technology will certainly excite climate change activists, the millions of Americans who don’t view climate change as a life-threatening catastrophe in the making may also appreciate the potential economic benefits and overall coolness of Solar Roadways.

Forget climate change — if Solar Roadways can lower energy and fuel costs without costing taxpayers an arm and a leg, why not look at least into it?

As the video above notes, if Solar Roadways ever becomes widely used, it could provide a jolt to the manufacturing sector in the U.S. and potentially create new jobs as well.

The idea has been criticized as unrealistic and many have argued it would be too expensive to implement nationally.

Inequality in the US is at record levels and getting even more extreme. In the following article one of the plutocrat billionaires sounds a warning. Suppressed people will take only so much abuse … Even if they’re Americans.

The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats

By NICK HANAUER

You probably don’t know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, co-founded and funded more than 30 companies across a range of industries—from itsy-bitsy ones like the night club I started in my 20s to giant ones like Amazon.com, for which I was the first nonfamily investor. Then I founded aQuantive, an Internet advertising company that was sold to Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. In cash. My friends and I own a bank. I tell you all this to demonstrate that in many ways I’m no different from you.

Like you, I have a broad perspective on business and capitalism. And also like you, I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can’t even imagine. Multiple homes, my own plane, etc., etc. You know what I’m talking about. In 1992, I was selling pillows made by my family’s business, Pacific Coast Feather Co., to retail stores across the country, and the Internet was a clunky novelty to which one hooked up with a loud squawk at 300 baud. But I saw pretty quickly, even back then, that many of my customers, the big department store chains, were already doomed. I knew that as soon as the Internet became fast and trustworthy enough—and that time wasn’t far off—people were going to shop online like crazy. Goodbye, Caldor. And Filene’s. And Borders. And on and on.

Realizing that, seeing over the horizon a little faster than the next guy, was the strategic part of my success.

The lucky part was that I had two friends, both immensely talented, who also saw a lot of potential in the web. One was a guy you’ve probably never heard of named Jeff Tauber, and the other was a fellow named Jeff Bezos. I was so excited by the potential of the web that I told both Jeffs that I wanted to invest in whatever they launched, big time.

It just happened that the second Jeff Bezos called me back first to take up my investment offer. So I helped underwrite his tiny start-up bookseller. The other Jeff started a web department store called Cybershop, but at a time when trust in Internet sales was still low, it was too early for his high-end online idea; people just weren’t yet ready to buy expensive goods without personally checking them out (unlike a basic commodity like books, which don’t vary in quality—Bezos’ great insight). Cybershop didn’t make it, just another dot-com bust. Amazon did somewhat better. Now I own a very large yacht.

But let’s speak frankly to each other. I’m not the smartest guy you’ve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I’m not technical at all—I can’t write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now?

I see pitchforks.

At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.

But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.

If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.

Many of us think we’re special because “this is America.”

We think we’re immune to the same forces that started the Arab Spring—or the French and Russian revolutions, for that matter. I know you fellow .01%ers tend to dismiss this kind of argument; I’ve had many of you tell me to my face I’m completely bonkers. And yes, I know there are many of you who are convinced that because you saw a poor kid with an iPhone that one time, inequality is a fiction.

Here’s what I say to you: You’re living in a dream world. What everyone wants to believe is that when things reach a tipping point and go from being merely crappy for the masses to dangerous and socially destabilizing, that we’re somehow going to know about that shift ahead of time.

Any student of history knows that’s not the way it happens. Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there’s no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand. That’s the way it always happens. If inequality keeps rising as it has been, eventually it will happen. We will not be able to predict when, and it will be terrible—for everybody. But especially for us.

The most ironic thing about rising inequality is how completely unnecessary and self-defeating it is. If we do something about it, if we adjust our policies in the way that, say, Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression—so that we help the 99 percent and preempt the revolutionaries and crazies, the ones with the pitchforks—that will be the best thing possible for us rich folks, too. It’s not just that we’ll escape with our lives; it’s that we’ll most certainly get even richer.

CDC Admits Ebola Could Be Airborne.

CDC finally admits what many have thought all along. The Ebola disease can be spread as an airborne virus. How else can you account for the heavy infection of medical workers? These trained people know how to protect themselves from direct contact. Yet medical staff are at greatest risk from this terrible disease.

By:Aaron Nelson:

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden, the Ebola virus might be airborne.

“It’s the single greatest concern I’ve ever had in my 40-year public health career,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “I can’t imagine anything in my career- and this includes HIV- that would be more devastating to the world than a respiratory transmissible Ebola virus.”

Experts are increasingly expressing fears that the Ebola virus can spread through droplets suspended in the air. This would explain the unprecedented increase in the number of Ebola cases in 2014. You probably didn’t hear about it on the corporate news, but a little less than 2 months ago the CDC updated their criteria for Ebola transmission to include “being within 3 feet” or “in the same room” as someone infected with the virus.

From the CDC’s website:

“A low risk exposure includes any of the following:
Household member or other casual contact with an EVD patient.
Providing patient care or casual contact without high-risk exposure with EVD patients in health care facilities in EVD outbreak affected countries.“

How does CDC define “casual contact“?

“Casual contact is defined as a) being within approximately 3 feet or within the room or care area for a prolonged period of time while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment or having direct brief contact (e.g., shaking hands) with an EVD case while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment.”
A study conducted in 2012 showed the Ebola virus was able to travel between pigs and monkeys that were in separate cages and never placed in direct contact.
Dr. Gary Kobinger, from the National Microbiology Laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Canada, told BBC News nearly two years ago that he believed Ebola was spread by droplets suspended in the air.
“What we suspect is happening is large droplets; they can stay in the air, but not long; they don’t go far,” he explained. “But they can be absorbed in the airway, and this is how the infection starts, and this is what we think, because we saw a lot of evidence in the lungs of the non-human primates that the virus got in that way.”
This strain of Ebola is not Ebola Zaire. This is a new strain. According to the CDC, this virus is genetically 97% similar to the Zaire strain. I don’t know about you, but my DNA is 97% similar to orangutans.
Related: Preventative Measures for Ebola in Case of an Outbreak

One Doctor Thinks CDC is Lying

Is this why Dr. Gil Mobley showed up at the Atlanta airport in a Hazmat suit protesting that the ‘CDC is lying‘, because he thinks the CDC is ‘sugar-coating‘ how serious a threat Ebola is to the United States? This document reveals that the CDC is concerned about airborne transmission of Ebola. Airline staff are being urged to provide surgical masks to anyone suspected of being infected in order “to reduce the number of droplets expelled into the air by talking, sneezing, or coughing”.
How did the Spanish nurse became the first person in the world to catch Ebola outside of Africa? The European Commission actually asked Spain to explain how she could have become infected, you know, if the virus is not airborne.
How else do you explain how an NBC News cameraman, wearing full body protective gear, was able to catch Ebola? The CDC predicts 1.4 million people will be infected with Ebola by January. How many of these people will be Americans? If you think the U.S. should ban air travel to and from the infected countries of West Africa, do you think the rest of the world should ban air travel to and from the United States if an Ebola outbreak starts in say, Dallas? The solution to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was 4,000 U.S. troops, and the virus is now outside of Africa. So, what will the solution look like in the United States?
It’s not a good sign when basic questions such as these are being ignored during a potential Ebola virus outbreak in America.

This is how Ebola can be spread, according to the CDC. Is Ebola airborne? The definition of ‘airborne‘ is ‘moving or being carried through the air‘. You be the judge.

“Unlike respiratory illnesses like measles or chickenpox, which can be transmitted by virus particles that remain suspended in the air after an infected person coughs or sneezes, Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids of a person who has symptoms of Ebola disease. Although coughing and sneezing are not common symptoms of Ebola, if a symptomatic patient with Ebola coughs or sneezes on someone, and saliva or mucus come into contact with that person’s eyes, nose or mouth, these fluids may transmit the disease.”

The Ebola virus is a frequent search over most search engines today. At our website, we tried to gather the best pieces of information for you. In case you liked the article above, we would recommend you to browse through our article gallery for more valuable takeaways on the subject matter. Please remember the articles we present are collated from mainstream websites. Hopefully MSM is reporting accurate information as known today.

Russell Brand May Have Started a Revolution Last Night

By Neetzan Zimmerman

Russell Brand talks about how the present system of democracy has failed the people and income inequality has never been greater. Watch the interview to see an impassioned Fire Brand.

The revolution itself may not be televised, but on last night’s edition of the BBC’s Newsnight, viewers may have witnessed the start of one.
Actor-slash-comedian-slash-Messiah Russell Brand, in his capacity as guest editor of the New Statesman’s just-published revolution-themed issue, was invited to explain to Jeremy Paxman why anyone should listen to a man who has never voted in his life.

“I don’t get my authority from this preexisting paradigm which is quite narrow and only serves a few people,” Russell responded. “I look elsewhere for alternatives that might be of service to humanity.”

And with that, the first shots of Russell’s revolutionary interview were fired.

Over the course of the following ten-or-so minutes, Brand and Paxo volleyed back and forth over subjects ranging from political apathy, to corporate greed, to gorgeous beards.

Throughout the interview, Brand repeatedly dodged Paxman’s efforts to trivialize his message — at one point Paxman literally called Brand a “very trivial man” — until finally, even the entrenched newsman appeared to relent against the rushing tide of Brand’s valid arguments.

After Brand reminded Paxman that he cried after learning that his grandma too had been “fucked over” by aristocrats, the Newsnight host was stunned into silence.

“If we can engage that feeling and change things, why wouldn’t we?” Brand crescendoed. “Why is that naive? Why is that not my right because I’m an ‘actor’? I’ve taken the right. I don’t need the right from you. I don’t need the right from anybody. I’m taking it.”

Climate Change Debate. What Do You Think?

John Oliver leads the debate on climate change. Does it take Miami to be under ten feet of the ocean to get your full attention. Especially if you live in Miami. Big questions should be “What are we going to do about it? How will we cope?

The Five Biggest Lies About Ebola

In an effort to prevent panic the government, with the help of mass media, continues to spread misinformation about the Ebola virus. This is a dangerous practice that will likely cause the loss of thousands of lives. The five most common lies are outlined below.

More information is at http://www.biodefense.com/

The Five Biggest Lies about Ebola being Pushed by Government and Mass Media

All the disinformation being spread about Ebola by the U.S. government and the complicit mass media will unfortunately make the Ebola pandemic far worse. That’s because the public isn’t being told the truth about how Ebola spreads and how individuals can help prevent transmission of the disease.

At every level of media and government, protecting the financial interests of drug companies appears to be far more important than protecting public health. So people aren’t told the truth about how Ebola spreads and how they can increase their ability to survive a global pandemic.

Here are five of the biggest lies being spread about Ebola right now. Once you’ve reviewed the lies, learn the truth at www.BioDefense.com

Lie #1) Ebola won’t ever come to the United States

This lie was shattered just this week when the CDC confirmed Ebola in a hospital patient in Dallas, Texas.

Not only has Ebola already spread to America, but a top scientist who used to work for the FDA now says this is only the beginning and that Ebola will spread in America. [1]

As printed in The Extinction Protocol:

“…it appears several people were exposed before the individual was placed in isolation, and it is quite possible that one or more of his contacts will be infected,” he added. What’s more, he conceded that it was “only a matter of time” that the swift-killing African virus arrived in the U.S.

Lie #2) Ebola is only spread via direct contact with body fluids

This outrageous medical lie may soon cost the lives of millions of innocent people. In truth, Ebola can spread through the air over short distances via aerosols – airborne particles.

Ebola can also spread via contaminated surfaces. When an infected patient makes contact with a surface such as a doorknob or ATM keypad, they may leave behind the Ebola virus which survives for many minutes or hours in the open, depending on environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.) Another person who touches the same surface may then become instantly infected by simply touching their own eyes, nose or mouth.

The ability of Ebola to spread via contaminated surfaces is why victims in Africa have become infected by riding in taxi cabs. This also means any form of public transportation — airplanes, ambulances, subways — may harbor the virus and accelerate the spread of an outbreak.

Like all viruses, Ebola is destroyed by sunlight. But it can remain viable for a surprisingly long time in environments where sunlight never reaches — such as underground subways, which are the perfect breeding grounds for viral transmission.

Lie #3) Don’t worry: Health authorities have everything under control

The overarching lie about Ebola that’s being repeated by the U.S. government is “Don’t worry, we have it under control!”

Of course, the fact that an infected Ebola victim just flew right into the country with Ebola, then walked around the city of Dallas for 10 days while carrying Ebola, utterly belies the false promises of health authorities who claim to have things under control.

In truth, Ebola is completely out of control which is precisely why its sudden appearance in a Dallas hospital surprised nearly everyone. The sobering fact of the matter is that despite all the money being spent on “homeland security,” DHS has no way to stop Ebola from walking right into the USA, including on foot from our wide open southern border.

If the U.S. government has everything under control, then why did the government just purchase 160,000 Ebola hazmat suits? Why did Obama just recently sign an executive order authorizing the forced government quarantine of anyone showing symptoms of infectious disease?

While the public can be easily lied to and told everything is under control, behind closed doors at the highest levels of government, everybody knows this pandemic could rapidly become a global killer that no one can stop.

Lie #4) The only defense against Ebola is a vaccine or a pharmaceutical drug

This lie may get millions of people killed if the Ebola outbreak gets worse. In a desperate bid to make sure Ebola generates billions of dollars in profits for vaccine makers and pharmaceutical companies, the CDC, FDA and even the FTC routinely censor truthful information about natural treatments that might hold promise (such as colloidal silver).

Companies that offer extremely beneficial essential oils and colloidal silver products have already been threatened with criminal arrest and prosecution by the FDA. The mainstream media remains complicit in the systematic oppression of natural cures, printing the FDA’s propaganda while completely avoiding any balanced reporting that might highlight the extraordinary anti-viral capabilities of many medicinal herbs as I’ve described in Episode Six of Pandemic Preparedness.

If we really want to stop the spread of this viral pandemic right now, both government and the media should be urging citizens to boost their immune defenses by consuming more nutritious foods, herbal spices, superfoods and anti-viral plants (which include peppermint, basil, rosemary, cinnamon and oregano, just to name a few).

Everyone should be immediately urged to make sure they have sufficient vitamin D circulating in their blood, and those who have low vitamin D — which includes just about everyone in America today — should be urged to take vitamin D supplements.

But instead of urging the public to enhance their immune function and boost their natural defenses against Ebola, everyone is ridiculously told to “wash your hands” and wait around for a drug company to introduce an Ebola vaccine.

Lie #5) Ebola came out of nowhere and was a random fluke of nature

The modern-day version of Ebola that’s so aggressively circulating today may actually be a bioengineered virus, according to one scientist who wrote a front-page story in Liberia’s largest newspaper.

“Ebola is a genetically modified organism (GMO),” declared Dr. Cyril Broderick, Professor of Plant Pathology, in a front-page story published in the Liberian Observer. [2]

He goes on to explain:

[Horowitz] confirmed the existence of an American Military-Medical-Industry that conducts biological weapons tests under the guise of administering vaccinations to control diseases and improve the health of “black Africans overseas.”

Further supporting this genetic engineering research claim, the U.S. government patented Ebola in 2010 and now claims intellectual property ownership over all Ebola variants. That patent number is CA2741523A1, viewable at this link.

Read more about the patenting of Ebola and control over its research in this Natural News article.

This means the U.S. government claims all control over Ebola research, too, because any research project involving replication of the virus would violate the government’s patent.

In fact, the vastly improved transmission ability of the Ebola strain currently circulating (compared to previous outbreaks in years past) has many people convinced this strain is a “weaponized” variant which either broke through containment protocols at government labs or was intentionally deployed as a population control weapon.

Several U.S. scientists have openly called for global depopulation using genetically engineered bioweapons such as Ebola. Dr. Eric Pianka of the University of Texas at Austin reportedly advocated the use of Ebola to wipe out 90% of the human population, according to Life Site News. [3]

It appears he may soon get his wish. If the current Ebola explosion continues, the global population may be in serious jeopardy and many millions could die.

Those who wish to live through a global pandemic should learn how to get prepared now by listening to the audio chapters at www.BioDefense.com

Did you like reading our collection on Ebola virus? We update new information on Ebola virus weekly. We would like to see you back on our website to enjoy more valuable reading. There is a lot we still have to cover in this fast moving, sad story.

Ebola Virus is a Scary Disease.

It’s understandable government officials don’t want to panic the public. Ebola is frightening everyone. But putting out incomplete and misleading information does little to serve the public interest. There is no excuse for downplaying the seriousness of the Ebola outbreak.

The following is from Cnews:

There is something very, very important that the corporate media and public health officials are not telling you regarding the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.

The information I’m about to present here is frightening. There’s really no way around that. However, I request that you do your very best to maintain a calm state of mind.

Right now in West Africa the worst Ebola outbreak in history is in full swing and is jumping borders at an alarming rate. Already it has spread to four countries, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and now Nigeria. This latest jump into Nigeria is particularly serious since the infected individual carried the virus by plane to Lagos, Nigeria, a city with a population of over 21 million. Doctors without borders has referred to the outbreak as “out of control”.

To make matters worse, there is something very, very important that the corporate media and public health officials are not telling you regarding this crisis.

You’ll notice if you read virtually any mainstream article on the topic that they make a point of insisting that Ebola is only transferred by physical contact with bodily fluids. Though the method of transmission in the study was not officially determined, one of the scientists involved, Dr. Gary Kobinger, from the National Microbiology Laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Canada, told BBC News that he believed that the infection was spread through large droplets that were suspended in the air.

“What we suspect is happening is large droplets; they can stay in the air, but not long; they don’t go far,” he explained. “But they can be absorbed in the airway, and this is how the infection starts, and this is what we think, because we saw a lot of evidence in the lungs of the non-human primates that the virus got in that way.”

Translation: Ebola Can Be an airborne virus Over Short Distances.

UPDATE: Someone pointed out that in medical terms, if the virus is transferred through tiny droplets in the air this would technically not be called an “airborne virus”. Airborne, in medical terms would mean that the virus has the ability to stay alive without a liquid carrier. On one hand, this is a question of semantics, and the point is well taken, but keep in mind that the study did not officially determine how the virus traveled through the air, it merely established that it does travel through the air. Doctor Kobinger’s hypothesis regarding droplets of liquid is just that, a hypothesis. For the average person, however, what needs to be understood is very simple: if you are in a room with someone infected with Ebola, you are not safe, even if you never touch them or their bodily fluids, and this is not what you are being told by the mainstream media. Essentially, I am using the word “airborne” as a layman term (which kind of makes sense, since I am a layman in this field).

Now I’m not going to speculate as to whether these so called “journalist” and public health agencies who keep repeating the official line regarding the means of transmission are lying, or are just participating in some massive display of synchronized incompetence, but what I will say, is that this shoddy reporting is most likely getting people killed right now, and may in fact put all of humanity in danger.

How so?

By convincing people that the virus cannot travel through air, important precautions that could reduce the spread of the virus are not being taken. For example the other passengers on the plane that traveled to Lagos, Nigeria were not quarantined.

To put this into context, Ebola kills between 50% and 90% of its victims, so the stakes are very, very high here.

NOTE: We have reported on the fact that Ebola can spread through the air in three separate articles since March of 2014, here, here and here, however the corporate media continue to misrepresent the vectors of transmission.

This particular strain of Ebola is not Ebola Zaire. This is a new strain, and it may in fact be more dangerous than the Zaire variety. Not because of any difference in the symptoms (the symptoms are identical), but because this new virus seems to be harder to contain. Whether this is due to some characteristic of the virus itself or merely dumb luck is uncertain at this time, but the rate at which this outbreak has extended its range is unprecedented.

According to the CDC this virus is genetically 97% similar to the Zaire strain. If you are interested in this virus’ phylogenetic relationship (genetic lineage) to the Zaire strain you should look read “Phylogenetic Analysis of Guinea 2014 EBOV Ebolavirus Outbreak” on plos.org.

Another study by the New England Journal of medicine (this was the one referenced by the CDC) specifically names the parts of the genetic code which differ:

Note that there doesn’t yet seem to be a consensus as to what this new strain is called. One study referred to it as “Guinean EBOV”, another as “Guinea 2014 EBOV Ebolavirus” and others are still referring to it as Zaire. Given that we can specifically name the points where the virus has mutated, using the old name is misleading.

Right now the question on everyone’s minds is whether this virus will spread outside of Africa. Considering the fact that Ebola has a three week incubation period, can travel through the air, and has already hitchhiked onto an international flight, this is a very real possibility. There are some that are downplaying the probability of this outcome, and to be honest, I hope that they are right, but the simple fact of the matter is that these people are basing their assessment on the faulty premise that Ebola is not an airborne virus.

Now the first thing you might be feeling when looking at this situation is a sense of fear and helplessness, and while that’s a perfectly normal reaction it’s really not helpful. Instead we should be thinking in terms of practical steps we can take to influence the outcome.

One thing we can all do is to start confronting journalists and public officials who keep making false statements regarding the way Ebola spreads. Use the links to the original study, the BBC report from 2012 and this video to put them in their place.

We also need to confront the fact that there isn’t a full out, coordinated, international effort to contain this. This is being treated like a sideshow but it has the very real potential to become a main event.

The doctors on the ground in West Africa don’t have enough staff or resources to deal with this situation. It is absolutely inexcusable for the U.S. and the E.U. to be investing billions of tax payer dollars into their little power games inUkraine and Syria (which are both in the process of escalating right now by the way) while Ebola is getting a foothold in Africa. Every available resource should be shifted to West Africa in order to contain and extinguish this epidemic right now.

This is serious. Call them, write them, heckle them in the streets if you have to, but don’t allow them to ignore this issue. Make it impossible for them to pretend later that they didn’t know.

Now, whether or not official policy towards the Ebola crisis changes, there are some precautions that you should take right now for yourself and your family.

1. Know where you would go if you needed to leave your home on short notice. If Ebola escapes Africa the last place you want to be is in a densely populated metropolitan area. It may be that the most practical destination for your family would be a rural area near your current home, but if you already have concerns about the government you are living under, and how they may handle a crisis like this, then you might want to start looking at alternatives. Finding an alternative location that suits your family’s needs is something that requires a lot of time and research, so don’t put this off. The primary characteristics you should be examined in an alternative destination are geography, political environment, climate, population density and visa terms and requirements. Ideally you would want to end up somewhere that is geographically isolated to some degree.

2. If you don’t have passports for yourself and each of your dependents, get them now. This is not to say that you should leave your country, but you should have the means to do so. In countries where the Ebola outbreak is underway, it is getting harder and harder to exit. Borders are being closed down. Flights are being cut off. This didn’t happen right away, but you definitely don’t want to be waiting for your passport to show up if Ebola arrives in your city.

3. Know what you would carry with you if you had to leave on short notice. Have these items ready, and have the luggage to carry them. It would be wise to consider buying a pack of surgical masks as part of this.

Now if you think about it, these preparations are wise steps to take regardless of whether the Ebola situation deteriorates or not. Knowing where you would go in an emergency, and having the means to get there on short notice is important for a wide variety of situations. The civilian population of Iraq, Syria, east Ukraine, and Gaza can attest to that.

Whatever you do, don’t let fear take control of your mind. Take the steps you can take now, monitor the situation calmly, and be prepared to adapt if necessary.

UPDATE: A number of people have requested that I comment on the fact that the Americans infected by Ebola are right now being flown into the U.S. My personal opinion is that this particular move will not lead to the virus getting out. This event is going to be highly scrutinized, and the isolation, security should be at max. The real danger isn’t in these highly controlled transfers and quarantines, but rather in the ongoing flow of air travel from these regions. Thirty five countries are merely one flight away from an Ebola zone right now.

Why is this random air travel more dangerous?

Because if it gets in when people aren’t looking, it can spread before containment measures are put into place. This is not true, at all

A study conducted in 2012 showed that Ebola was able to travel between pigs and monkeys that were in separate cages and were never placed in direct contact.

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